San Francisco, Calif. – February 5, 2013 – Blackstone Technology Group, a global IT and business consulting firm, proudly announces that Rakesh Agrawal, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Energy Practice, has been selected to serve on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee for the Wholesale Gas Quadrant (WGQ), Services Segment of the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB).

Blackstone Technology Group maintains a long-term commitment to being NAESB compliant with its Trellis software, the leading and only web-based, single-platform natural gas pipeline and transaction management solution. Trellis is a transaction management platform designed with innovative technologies to help asset operators manage their pipelines, gathering, storage, hubs, and distribution assets while gaining operational efficiencies to improve the bottom-line.

As a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of NAESB’s WGQ’s Services Segment, Mr. Agrawal will join other industry leaders to help shape and enforce best practices, standards and regulations within the wholesale natural gas industry. He will serve from January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2014.

“I am honored to serve on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of NAESB,” says Mr. Agrawal. “As a committee member, involved firsthand in the process of defining, analyzing, and refining pipeline regulations, I will be able to ensure that Trellis remains at the fore front of the industry, in terms of its full compliance with the ever evolving NAESB standards, while simultaneously ensuring that Blackstone provides the marketplace with an innovative, market leading, and configurable natural gas pipeline transaction management solution.”